Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Getting pickled in your RV

Dear Dr. R.V. Shrink:
My husband is sick in the head. Nothing too serious. The pickle jar fell out of the cupboard and beaned him good. We stopped for lunch at a rest area in North Dakota after driving through a long construction zone. Things must have been rattled around pretty good. I opened the cupboard door and before I could yell “incoming” he was sprawled on the floor holding his head, practicing vocabulary I rarely hear. Now he thinks we need netting on all of our cupboard openings. We have been on the road for three years and this has never happened before. I don’t want to deal with netting every time I need a can of beans. He is being very insistent that he design some safety measure. Do you think it was the pickles? Will he eventually get over this obsession? The lump on his head has disappeared but I see him staring at the cupboards all the time and his little gears are turning. I know he is going to do something stupid, like build a hockey goal around all of our storage areas. Help me please.
--Pickled in Park Rapids

Dear Pickled:
We’ve all been pickled before. It wears off after a short time. As you know, UFO’s (Unidentified Falling Objects), are not a constant problem. My suggestion would be to work with your husband on this problem so you can control his creative side. Suggest that you rearrange goods so that heavy items, such as pickles, are not stored directly above the dinette. In this cupboard you may want to place paper products like napkins. If he does not buy into this relocation process there are products already on the market that create the very barriers he's trying to design. Some look like hockey goals and others act like cupboard fencing. These devices are not normally needed. Storage of items takes some thought and experimental experience. Noise is another issue RVer’s in motorhomes deal with while rolling down the road. Storing food, dishes and pots and pans takes some organization and planning to keep the decibel level within a reasonable range. Many people find themselves going to lighter weight products like plastic wine glasses and composite plates. Light, unbreakable items do less damage if they happen to fall out of the cupboards. They are also less likely to cause a concussion or long-term engineering programs. If you find a number of divots in the dinette's formica table top, you are probably a candidate for storage rearrangement school.
--Keep Smilin’, Dr. R.V. Shrink

I agree, tension rods across the openings are easy to put in, easy to take out and prevent things from falling out. RE: Heavy jars and cans in upper cupboards, I don;t do that. I keep the heavier things lower, below the counter. If you don't have a pullout pantry, use shallow plastic or even cardboard boxes as drawers on the shelves. You can pull them part way out and see what is in them a lot easier than rooting around in the cupboard.

I use thin plexiglass (found in craft store). Cut a couple inches shorter than cupboard (it will bend a little to fit in. If 2 or 3 doors with no dividers I cut one a little wider than door and slide them back and forth like a closet door.